A by-the-numbers look at health-care funding and spending in Canada

Share on Facebook

A

A

Share via Email

Print

By:StaffThe Canadian Press Published on

OTTAWA — Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is digging in for a fight with her provincial and territorial counterparts over how much Ottawa should shell out for health-care funding over the coming years.

A primary sticking point is the federal government's stated intention to proceed with cutting annual increases in health transfers to the provinces in half to three per cent. Here are some numbers that provide a look at public-sector health spending and funding in Canada:

$36 billion: Total federal health transfers to the provinces and territories in 2016-17, according to Finance Department numbers. The transfers are treated as government revenues, like income taxes, and are added to each jurisdiction's general pool of cash.

1.5 per cent: Projected public-sector expenditure growth between 2014 and 2015 by the provinces, according to the most-recent annual spending report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

2.7 per cent: Annual average growth in public-sector health spending by provinces between 2011 and 2015, according to the group's data. (The figures for 2014 and 2015 are forecasts.) CIHI says the decline is largely a reflection of Canada's modest economic growth after the 2009 recession, which led to fiscal belt-tightening by governments.

7.2 per cent: Annual average growth in public-sector health spending by provinces between 1998 and 2010, according to CIHI data.